PRESQUE ISLE, Maine—The Onion Foundation recently awarded a three-year grant totaling $45,000 to the Wintergreen Arts Center. Earmarked for general support, the initial $15,000 gift was received in June 2025.
The Onion Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation based in Maine with a mission to build a more equitable and healthy Maine by deepening the connection of all people to the arts and nature. Learn more at onionfoundation.org.
“The Onion Foundation founders, trustees, and staff are remarkable,” said Dottie Hutchins, Wintergreen’s executive director. “They not only support arts and nature-based organizations across Maine through financial gifts, but they also invest time and energy getting to know the people behind those organizations and our needs.”
Beyond financial support, the Onion Foundation often extends invitations for their grantees to participate in organizational strengthening programs.
One opportunity that significantly impacted Wintergreen was the Foundation’s invitation for the arts center to participate in an organizational capacity assessment. The survey measured nonprofits’ effectiveness in relation to four core capacities—adaptive, leadership, management, and technical capacities—as well as organizational culture.
“Many of these opportunities were not on our radar, not would we have taken advantage of them without the Onion Foundation’s help,” said Hutchins. “The capacity-building work we did with their help was a game changer. We learned important things about how best to develop as a community arts center in serving the people of Aroostook County.”
This three-year Onion Foundation grant (in part) supports Wintergreen’s youth arts education programs including its After School Arts Program and Summer Arts Camps. The stability of this gift also helps ensure no child is turned away from these programs due to a family’s ability to pay. It helps Wintergreen include all children who wish to participate.
About the Onion Foundation: The Onion Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation working to provide people in Maine with meaningful connections to the arts and the natural environment. Through grantmaking, convening, and resource sharing, the foundation helps organizations — especially those supporting rural areas and under resourced communities — expand equitable access to programming, build their capacity, and efficiently achieve their goals.
About Wintergreen Arts Center: The Wintergreen Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2006, and located in Presque Isle, Maine. Wintergreen is an organization based on the idea that creativity, advocacy, and community can produce great things. Our mission is stimulating creativity and curiosity through the arts in Aroostook County.